Cru (Manhattan) 09

It was only a few nights ago but I want to say something about this place before I entirely forget it, not that it is at all a forgettable place. It's one of those ultra smooth sophisticated sort of two star New York restaurants, of which there are many, where the well clad and the well heeled graze. I found it all slightly artificially charming - nice venue, well dressed and ever attentive so very well mannered servers. The first thing to arrive at the table was the two volume leather bound wine list.
I rather liked it. set out in sensible sections - wines by the glass, half bottles, champagne and sparkling, then national and regional areas each page of wines is preceded by a map of the area from which they come. We've been going for safety lately and started with a bottle of NV Charles Ellnor champagne ($95) but they ran out after that and we had a couple of single glasses of something else to follow. An Alsatian muscat was $24 a glass! The meal began with a chef's offering of a ceviche of octopus
- a tender morsel.We chose the three course prixe fixe ($84/person) and started with snails, wild scallops with a veloute sauce
which I thoroughly enjoyed. My wife had a lobster appetiser
which was a good size serve of rather chewy lobster meat with a nice accompanying sauce. I had no coment about a third dish Before the mains the chef offered us a dish of rather grainy ravioli
stuffed with indeterminate sea food For mains the foam totally hid the nicely prepared fillet of striped bass
. The braised oxtail and sweetbreads
was much to my taste but not for you if you don't like slow cooked food. These were followed by a cheese dish and desserts which, as in all the good restaurant
s we've been to, were attractive, very sweet and very of very good taste. Score 16.23/20